Typical curbed storm drain catch basins are designed as a primary entry point for urban water runoff. The curb openings provide nuisance water, low flow storm water, and high flow storm water into the catch basin as well as trash and/or debris that emanates from the streets and curbsides.
Trash and/or debris such as bottles, cans, plastic wrappers, leaves, grass cuttings, sediments, manure, hydrocarbons, and other pollutants frequently find their way into these catch basins and may travel through storm drain outlet pipes and into rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water.
A vast majority of screened covers that have been inserted into curb opening catch basins stay closed during the dry season and swing open through mechanical trip devices when the storm water reaches a predetermined curb height.
During heavy rainfall events, due to storms or water main pipeline breakage, it is imperative that water flow from the streets into the curb openings containing these retractable screens open up significantly in order to prevent street flooding.
Trash and/or debris accumulate in front of these screened devices and along the curbs and gutters from the streets. Street sweeper trucks often provide cleaning service to remove and collect this debris build-up during planned maintenance schedules, which can be performed periodically (e.g., weekly, monthly, etc.). The screened devices that have debris build-up will typically remain closed during the street sweeper brush pass, as well as stay closed during nuisance water and low flow storm water events.
Typical storm drain screened gate systems designed to remain closed during the dry season or low flow storm water events and open during heavy storm water events are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,491,338 to Nino, U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,523 to Martinez, U.S. Pat. No. 8,277,645 to Jarvis, U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,894 to Flury, U.S. Pat. No. 6,972,088 to Yehuda, U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0103883 to Friezner, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,238,279 to Saurenman. The disadvantage of such systems is that some of these screen devices incorporate locking pin components, which can malfunction due to trash and/or debris fouling, which prevent opening of the screen device. Additionally, some devices may be too complex in design, with many moving parts that can prevent opening and/or closing due to trash and/or debris entanglement.